Closure means for elevators



Oct. 1, 1963 B. W. TUCKER, JR

CLSURE MEANS FOR ELEVATORS original Filed July so, 1958 B" @@JLW ATTORN EY United States Patent O 3,ll:' ,272 CLSURE EGR ELEVATGRS v Beniamin Whitehead Tucker, r., South Grange, NJ., assigner to @tis Eievator Company, New Yorir, NE., a corporation of New .iersey @riginal application .lnly 3i?, i958, Ser. No. 752,692, now Patent No. 3,965,326, dated Nay. 27, i962. Divided and this application Nov. Kl, 1954i, Ser. No. 67,273; 1 Claim, (6l. Ztl-19) ri`his invention relates to Ihorizontally sliding doors and more particularly to such doors for elevator entranceways,

and is `a division of application Serial Number 752,092, iiled Iuly 30, i958, now Patent No. 3,065,826, issued November 27, 1962.

In an elevator installation an entranceway is provided at each door of a building where it is desired to provide access to the elevator hoistway. An elevator car travelling in such hoist-way has a corresponding entranceway which, when the car stops at a floor landing, is positioned opposite to the hoistway entranceway to provide `access to the car interior.

It is common practice to equip each of these entranceways with a horizontally sliding door composed of metal panels, which lpanels usually enclose a hollow central core space, and to suspend the door `from a horizontally positioned overhead track by a hanger bracket attached to the top of the door, which bracket has two or more main `rollers riding on the top surface of the track. Optionally, upthrust rollers `may be provided with a slight running Clearance to the lower surface of the track for the purpose of coniining the `assembly t0 close contact with the track and to prevent tilting or canting of the door. The bottom of the door is slidably confined in a groove formed in the Itop surface of the doorway threshold plate.

Each hollow metal door is of similar construction and consists of a metal front panel yand a 'metal back panel, the extreme vertical edges of which are bent into ange shapes vfor mating engagement midway between the panels. When welded into abutting relation, these flange sections form the vertical side surfaces of the door. Welded between the front and back panels along their upper extremities is `a U-shaped channel member, having a horizontal web and upwardly extending ilanges. Immediately beneath the horizontal web and attached to its bottom surface, as by welding, is a reinforcing bar for distributing the weight load and reinforcing the web portion, This bar as well as the horizontal web are drilled and tapped to receive bolts by which the hanger bracket is attached to the top surface of ythe door. Lock washers secure the bolts in position. A ltil-ler bar is welded within the U-shaped channel member to provide a bearing surface for the under side of the hanger bracket. Shims are positioned between the hanger bracket `and iiller bar to align properly the door with the overhead track and bottom door guide. Each door is suspended from its overhead track by means of a pair of main rollers which engage the top surface of the track and which 'are rotatably mounted on the upper portion of the hanger bracket by means of studs. A pair of upthrust rollers 'are also rotatably mounted on the hanger bracket by means of studs in position to engage the bottom surface of the overhead track directly beneath the main rollers. The overhead track is secured to the elevator `cab structure or the building superstructure, yas the case may be. The bottom of each door is slidably coniined in a groove formed in lthe top surface of its doorway threshold plate. Such prior art hollow metal doors yand their suspending assemblies are shown and described in more detail "Ice in my aforementioned co-pending application No. 752,092 `with particular reference to FIGURES l through 3.

rIraditionally, the doors and brackets have been drilled and tapped, where necessary, in the factory and have then been brought into final yassembly at the installation site.

Because the plane of the vertical face of the hanger bracket must be parallel to the plane of the vertical door surface `and the door -must be mounted at the correct heig t and in horizontal alignment with the overhead track and doorway threshold plate, if the door is to operate properly, and because the manner of manufacture and assembly has often made this diflicult to achieve, it is not uncommon for the assembly and hanging of the sliding doors to consume a disproportionate amount of highly experienced eld erection effort.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a sliding door assembly which is ladaptable to erection with a minimum of eiort by relatively unskilled personnel.

it is a Vfurther object of this invention to provide a sliding door and its hanger devices which are of simplified construction and which are assembled with the requisite degree of parallelism in the factory where the tools and fixtures for achieving the desired results are superior to those commonly available at the installation site.

rThese and other desirable characteristics of the invention can best be understood from the 'following description of a preferred embodiment of the invention which is made in conjunction with the drawings in which:

FIGURE l is a fragmentary, front elevational, schematic view of the upper portion of a sliding elevator door, havin!7 incorporated therein the door suspending device of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a fragmentary, side elevational, schev matic view of the sliding door of FIGURE l positioned in an entranceway;

FIGURE 3 is an enlarged view taken along the line 3-3 of FIGURE 1;

FiGURE 4 is Ka fragmentary view taken along the line @-4 of FIGURE l; and

FGURE 5 is a perspective View of one of the eccentric studs of FIGURE l.

Referring to the drawings, an overhead track 1G is disposed across the elevator entranceway above the top of elevator door l2 in the conventional manner and is suitably secured to structure, generally designated 14, forming the entranceway. Door l2 is suspended from track iii by main rollers i6 :for sidewise movement, and consists of a metal front panel Eil and `a metal back panel 22, each panel having flanges 24 formed `along its extreme vertical side edge 4for mating engagement midway between the panels to -rorm the body portion `of the door. When welded into butted relationship, these flange sections t'orm the vertical side edge surfaces of the door. Three vertically disposed channel members 26 welded to the inside surface of front panel Ztl interlock with strip fastening clips 2S welded to the inside surface of back panel 22 and serve to reinforce the door internally. The top or supporting portion of each door consists of a metal plate 32, having substantially la J cross-sectional shape, the lower curved portion of which is welded between the front :and back panels 20 and 22 to -form the top edge surface of the door. The upper vertical portion of plate 32 is substantially in the plane of back panel 22 and extends upwardly above the top surface of the overhead track. Plate 32 extends horizontally almost the width of the door.

Main rollers 16 of conventional roller bearing construction are tadjustably secured to the Vtop portion 32. of the door by lmeans of eccentric studs 36 cooperating 'with nuts 37. A pair of upthrust rollers itl also of convendoor has secure snoda/e tional roller bearing construction `are also adjustably ksecured to the top portion 32 of the door by means of eccentric studs ft2 cooperating with nuts 43, and are adjusted for a slight running clearance with the bottom surface of the trackA to prevent canting of the door.' Slots ifi formed in one end of studs 36, 42 facilitate adjustment of rollers lo and 4G. Lock washers secure studs 35 and 42 in position. The bottom of the thereto -a pendulant rectangular guide member LES which is slidably conined in a groove formed in the top surface of doorway threshold plate 5d.

Unlike the prior `art apparatus previ usly described, the Iapparatus of the present invention minimizes installation elfort. The doors of the subject invention may be assembled at the factory lwhere the tools and iixtures are superior to those commonly available at the installation site. Also, the main rollers le, upthrust rollers 4t) `and their respective eccentric studs 36 and 42 may be mounted on the door at the factory and the entire assembly shipped, as a unit, to the installation site. At the installation site, all that need be done by an installer to install the door in the elevator entranceway is rto turn eccentric studs 36 and Vto increase the vertical distance between main rollers 16 and upthrust rollers is@ sufficiently to suspend the door yfrom its overhead track 1t), and then simply turn the eccentric studs until the door is in horizontal alignment with the overhead track lil and 4doorway threshold plate 5l?, and rollers 4) barely engage the bottom surface of the track. This door as sembly also dispenses with the necessity of using a considerable `amount of hardware to install a door, namely the door suspending apparatus of the previously described prior `art device, which apparatus includes: shims, bolts, lock washers, a reenforcing bar, a iller bar, a U-shaped channel member and a hanger bracket.

As many changes could he made in the above construction and many apparently widely diierent embodiments of this invention could lbe made without departing from the scope thereof, it is intended that all matter contained in the above description or shown on the accompanying drawing shall lbe interpreted as illustrative and not in a limiting sense.

What is claimed is:

ln an elevator entranceway adapted to be closed by a `door horizontally movable on an overhead supporting track of a given width rigidly affixed to the entranceway structure and extending horizontally above the entrance port member having substantially a J-shaped cross-sec i opening, said tracl: having substantially smooth upper and lower guide surfaces, a door comprising vertically disposed front and back panels of rectangular configura-tion, each of said panels having its bottom and two vertical side edges formed `as flanges, said iront and back panel anges being contiguous and alixed to its conjugate flange throughout their length, a vertically eri-:tending curved suptional configuration, the lower curved portion of said support rnernber being positioned between and rigidly a :ted 4to the inner surfaces of said yfront and back panels i along their top extremities Iwith the straight portion of said support member extending vertically above the top surface of the `door in a plane contiguous to and parallel to the plane of one of said panels, a pair of door supporting rollers of a given radius, a pair of tip-thrust rollers or" a given radius, said vertically extending portion of said support member having formed therein near each of its end extremities, `a pair of stud receiving apertures one above and one fbelow the levels corresponding to the height of the upper and lower guide surfaces respectively of said track, said `apertures being displaced vertically one from the other by a dimension only slightly greater than the width of said track plus the combined radii of one of said door supporting rollers and one of said tip-thrust rollers, :a plurality of studs one each being rigidly mounted in each aperture, said door supporting rollers being mounted on the upper level studs and positioned to lbear on the upper level surface of said track, said tip-thrust rollers being positioned on the lower level studs and bein-g positioned in contiguous relation to the lower surface of said track, each of said studs having a mounting portion and a roller supporting portion, said `mounting portion being eccentrically positioned with respect `to its roller supporting portion whereby the position or each stud supported roller with respect to the top of the door can be varied by rotating the respective stud in its mounting in the aperture.

References Cited in the iile of this patent UNlTED STATES PATENTS 856,299 atelier June 11, 1907 1,329,326 Parsons Jan. 27, 1920 2,574,496 llomeroy et al. Nov. 13, 1951 FOREGN PATENTS 677,175 Germany lune 20, 1939 

